An estimated 600 million birds are killed by buildings every year. Especially during spring and fall migrations, birds are attracted to the glow of residential homes and skyscrapers alike. Sometimes the birds crash directly into their windows. Other times, it seems to throw off their internal compass, causing them to circle until exhausted.
— Fast Company

The saddening statistic comes from a 2014 study led by Scott Loss, an assistant professor of global change ecology and management at Oklahoma State University. More recently, a new study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology found that Chicago, Houston, and Dallas are the top three U.S. cities... View full entry

Details and designs have been revealed for the MSG Sphere London, a planned venue that would hold up to 21,500 people. [...]

The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG), which is behind the New York concert and sports venue of the same name, have bought a 1.9-hectare (4.7-acre) site in Stratford, adjacent to the Olympic Park and Westfield shopping centre, that was used as a coach park during the 2012 London Olympics.
— The Guardian

Image: Madison Square Garden CompanyInitially rumored in January 2018, London's sphere-shaped music venue proposal, designed by Populous, has substantially taken shape, and the Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) behind the project has reportedly now filed planning documents. The plans have been... View full entry

It might sound like a plot cooked up by a cartoon villain, but a city in southwestern China is aiming to launch into space an artificial moon that could replace streetlights by bathing the ground in a “dusk-like glow.”

[...] the satellite’s mirror-like exterior would reflect sunlight down to Earth, creating a glow about eight times brighter than the moon. The artificial moon, which he said would orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth, could save $174 million in electricity from streetlights.
— NBC News

The capital of China's Sichuan province, Chengdu, could have its own illumination satellite 'moon' up in the skies by 2020, according to the People's Daily. Light pollution, and its documented health effects on humans and nocturnal wildlife, doesn't seem to be much of a concern to the officials... View full entry

New York’s nightscape is as iconic [...] as it is taken for granted. A city without streetlights is impossible to imagine, but New York’s 396,572 street-side luminaires are as unremarkable as the streets’ paving — invisible until something changes. An initiative to replace sodium and halogen bulbs with energy- and cost-efficient LEDs has thrown the nightscape suddenly into question, as some city residents bemoan the loss of romance (and sleep).
— Urban Omnibus

In her piece for Urban Omnibus, landscape and urban designer Emily Schlickman takes a fascinating closer look at the history of New York City's system of street-side luminaires (the largest in the nation), and how the recent transition to LED technology is affecting the city and its... View full entry

The American Medical Association (AMA) has just adopted an official policy statement about street lighting: cool it and dim it.

The statement, adopted unanimously at the AMA's annual meeting in Chicago on June 14, comes in response to the rise of new LED street lighting sweeping the country. An AMA committee issued guidelines on how communities can choose LED streetlights to "minimize potential harmful human health and environmental effects."
— CNN

There are two basic issues at hand. First, new, "white" LED lighting, which have a color temperature of between 4000K and 5000K, can cause discomfort and glare. This is because the light is concentrate and has high blue content, which can cause severe glare and force pupillary constriction... View full entry

Some [researchers] noted that exposure to the blue-rich LED outdoor lights might decrease people’s secretion of the hormone melatonin. Secreted at night, melatonin helps balance the reproductive, thyroid and adrenal hormones and regulates the body’s circadian rhythm of sleeping and waking.
— washingtonpost.com

While the American Medical Association cautions cities to re-evaluate their use of high-intensity LED lights for health reasons, others have pointed out that most televisions and computers also emit the blue light wavelength found to be potentially harmful. Aside from human health concerns, LEDs... View full entry

Where should you travel if you want killer views of the stars unblemished by artificial light?Certainly not the U.S. or Europe, where nearly 100 percent of the population endures some form of light pollution...Italy’s [ISTIL], NOAA, the National Park Service, and elsewhere built one of the most comprehensive atlases of global light pollution to date. They hope their work will set a benchmark for future generations struggling with day blending into night.
— CityLab

You can find the atlas of artifical sky brightness here.More on Archinect:New glow-in-the-dark cement could illuminate roads & structuresDesigning for the Night"drawing/space" by Emma McNally to show at “Abstract Drawing” exhibition in London’s Drawing Room View full entry